GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- The Colorado Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's ruling that an 8 1/2-month-old fetus who died after being delivered was not a "person" under state murder laws.

The appeals court issued a 26-page ruling Thursday concerning Lileigh Lehnen, the daughter of Shea Lehnen of Collbran, Colo.

Shea Lehnen was driving on Colorado 65 on Nov. 6, 2007, when her vehicle was hit head-on by a Jeep that police said was driven by Logan Lage as he fled a state trooper.

Lehnen was rushed to a Grand Junction hospital. Doctors delivered her baby by emergency Cesarean section, but the girl died within hours.

A judge ruled in 2008 that Lileigh Lehnen was not yet a person when the crash occurred and threw out a first-degree murder charge against Lage.

"While here the child was alive at the time of defendant’s alleged criminal acts, she had not been born,” the Appeals Court said. “Therefore, she was not a ‘person’ within the meaning of (state murder laws)."

A "person" in Colorado murder statutes is defined as a human being who had been born and was alive at the time of the homicidal act.

The appeals court also reinstated felony charges of child abuse resulting in death, vehicular eluding, careless driving causing death, and vehicular assault while driving under the influence against Lage.